ameaçar

Forms

ameaçar (first-person singular present ameaço, first-person singular preterite ameacei, past participle ameaçado)^[1] The Cantigas de Santa Maria have both ameaçar (also spelt amẽaçar) and meaçar;^[2][3] Cunha dates both to the 13th century.^[2][3] Houaiss adds ameeçar and amecar from the 14th century.^[4] Feijó (1734) sets the spelling ameaçar against the form amiaçar.^[5]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese ameaça + -ar.^[4][6][7][8] Wiktionary also allows a Vulgar Latin verb *admināciō (“to threaten”), built on *mināciō.^[1]

The noun ameaça, of the 13th century in its older form Old Galician-Portuguese meaça, is from Vulgar Latin minācia (“threat”) with the feminine article fused to it.^[9][3] The Latin noun, which Plautus already used beside minae (“threats”), is formed on mināx (“threatening”).^[10][1] Houaiss derives the adjective from minor (“to jut out; to threaten”), the OLD from the plural noun for threats.^[9][11]

The Romance verbs Galician ameazar, Spanish amenazar, Catalan amenaçar, French menacer and Italian minacciare, and the English word menace, belong with it.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado and Lorenzo quote a Latin law text of 1202 with the Romance verb in it: homine de fora qui in sua quintana ueneris amenaçar “a man from outside who comes to threaten in his farmstead”.^[6][2] In Galician-Portuguese the verb is common in the Cantigas de Santa Maria: one is headed como Santa Maria ameaçou o bispo “how Holy Mary threatened the bishop”, and another tells how the devil threatened the painter de o matar “to kill him”.^[2] A cantiga d'escarnho complains of a man who de mais m'ameaça “threatens me besides”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The medieval senses were already “to threaten someone” and “to threaten to do something”: in the Graal Queen Guinevere is threatened with death, and a 1383 document says o dito priol os ameaçaua “the said prior threatened them”.^[2][6] Morais (1813) adds the impersonal sense “to be imminent” (o mayor damno que ameaçava) and things that threaten, such as a rock at sea.^[13] Vieira (1871–1874) adds making a threatening gesture and showing the symptoms of a disease.^[14] The catenative use, ameaçar cair “to be about to fall”, and the sense “to endanger” complete the modern range.^[4][1]

Timeline

• 1202 – amenaçar in a Latin law text.^[6][2]
• 13th century – ameaçar, amẽaçar and meaçar in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2]
• 14th century – the spellings ameeçar and amecar.^[4]
• 1383 – os ameaçaua in a document quoted by Machado.^[6]
• 1513 – first occurrence in the CTA corpus, in the Livro dos Mártires.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses ameaçar with Latin minor and minitor.^[16]
• 1813 – Morais records the sense “to be imminent”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To threaten: to make threats against someone, to frighten: O cão ameaçava quem se aproximasse.^[4][8][1]
2. To threaten (harm or punishment); to announce a penalty: ameaçou despedi-lo.^[4][17]
3. To endanger, put at risk: A seca ameaça as colheitas.^[4][8][1]
4. To be about to happen; to give signs of something coming: Ameaçava trovoada.^[4][7]
5. To make as if to do something without doing it.^[4][7]

Word family

• ameaçador
• ameaçante

Related words

• ameaça
• ameaço
• Latin mināx
• Galician ameazar
• Spanish amenazar

Usage notes

Ameaçar ruína is said of a building that is about to collapse.^[14][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. ameaçar
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. ameaça
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ameaçar
5. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ameaçar
6. ^ a b c d e Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. ameaçar
7. ^ a b c Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. ameaçar
8. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. ameaçar
9. ^ a b Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ameaça
10. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. ameaça
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. minax
12. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. ameaçar
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 119
14. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 1, 366
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. ameaçar
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. ameaçar
17. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. ameaçar
18. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. ameaçar